Butterfingers
All I have to say is wow! Having been in South Korea for around 8 months now there are a few things that I frequently crave - a lot of which I can cook for myself with ingredients available from stores like Homeplus - but there are some things you just want to be able to have cooked for you...the way you like them!
The butterfingers menu is impressive... they serve the most amazing buttermilk pancakes but you can also get Waffles, Bacon and Eggs, breakfast sausage, fried potatoes, french toast etc etc etc. There is also a massive selection of sweet pancakes, waffles and ice creams. It's not the cheapest restaurant around, though you can expect that with most places that serve Western Food, it's also not ridiculously expensive and the meals are huge. My friend and I shared 1 big breakfast and added an extra two pancakes (coz they were too good and we were being greedy) and we were both stuffed for hours afterward. Definitely worth a visit and they are open from 7am to 3am so there is plenty of time to get there!
Directions: Get to Gangnam Station on the subway and look for exit six which will take you up to street level. Walk in a straight line from the top of the subway stairs till you reach the Body Shop at the first corner and then turn left. Butterfingers will be on your left on the second block, though the blocks are small in this area so you should see it just after you round the corner, it's just after the Burger King.
Dr Fish Cafe
Another awesome experience! Though it's a little difficult to find on the second floor of a massive building in Gangnam it is well worth he trip! It costs about 2,000won ( roughly $2) although you have to buy a cup of coffee so you are looking at about 7,000won in total...the coffee is fabulous so I had no complaints! You are also given a tray with some butter and jam and they have a station in the middle of the cafe where you can help yourself to as much fresh bread or toast as you can eat.
You can choose to have your coffee before or after your Dr. Fish session. When you are ready you walk up to a little raised area right by the window where there is lots of natural light and one of the assistants directs you to take off your shoes and socks and put your feet down into a wooden sink where he hoses them down to make sure you don't contaminate the fish water. Then you have a choice of two different tanks, on with small fish, and the other with rather large fish. You sit down and drop your feet into the tank where the fish start to eat the dead skin off whatever skin is submerged in the water. It tickles
for a while with the little ones then it just starts to feel like your skin is tingling. I didn't like the bigger fish because I could actually feel them eating me and I found it a little creepy.
A little background:
Doctor fish is the name given to two species of fish, Garra rufa, and Cyprinion macrostomus. The fish at the cafe in Gangnam are Garra Rufa. They consume the affected and dead areas of the skin leaving the healthy skin to grow - kind of like the way the cleaner fish look after sharks and whales.
Directions: Get to Gangnam Station on the subway and look for exit six which will take you up to street level. Walk in a straight line from the top of the subway stairs till you can see the CGV building on the other side of the road and then you should be practically in front of it. Look up! The cafe is on the second floor but you should be able to see the sign pictured here.
I had seen so many pictures on the facebook pages of my friends here in Korea where it looked like they were actually involved in a painting somehow and I had to go and check it out. I picked a weekend where I had some free time (those are few and far between!) and started getting organised to head into Seoul... then I realised I didn't know where we were going... Special mention in this post goes to the lovely Rosie for providing some last minute directions (also because this time they were really good directions...this time...lol)!
We jumped on the subway and headed for Sindorim station and found the Interactive Art Museum without any problems... finding the ticket office around the corner from it and then the right door to get in was a little challenging but even though they had very little English the people working there were happy to help.
It was such a cool thing to go to, like a large winding series of rooms, full of the most amazing 3D paintings that you could interact with. It was also amazing to see the large number of people going through it and how no-one seemed to get stressed, everyone just waited for their turn, and patiently! I have had a lot of fun playing with the photo's since then so I have attached a bunch of them below.
Definitely a fun day!
When I got to school a couple of the teachers gave me gifts too which was so sweet and I was stunned when even the principal came to visit me with a card written half in Korean and half in English! I had been for dinner the night before with my co-teachers who had gone to all the trouble to get me a cake and really make a fuss. I had arranged with school to finish early that day so that I could make the most of mum's prezzie to me; a massage and facial, before heading home to relax for a while before dinner.
That night we met up with mum and had dinner at the fanciest restaurant in Osan, don't laugh, Outback Jack's Steakhouse. I am not kidding! The food there is amazing...totally twisted by the Korean chefs but thoroughly delicious! I was spoiled rotten by mum as well who had arranged Amazon credits so that I could buy books for my kindle!
My birthday was on the Friday so on the Saturday Mum and I jumped onto a bus and went to Everland - which is like the Korean version of Disneyland or Dreamworld. It's absolutely huge and beautifully decorated....and swarming with people! Everland averages about 9 million visitors a year and has a zoo and a water park as well as rides and a few other attractions.
Lowlights: